Brave, Appetizing Color Where You Cook
18 Inspiring Not-All-White Kitchens
Unless this is your very first time considering kitchen designs, you're probably aware that white is all the rage in the room where we prepare food. And yet, if you Google "appetizing colors" you'll get more than 6,000 hits, many of them linking to sources that list the hotter colors (red, orange, yellow) as being appetite stimulants. (Poor blue finds itself often cited as a tool in weight-loss programs, thanks to a widely held opinion that it deters hunger.)
Here is a collection of kitchens that stepped outside the boundaries of white. They are arranged according to my subjective assessments of bravery, from just a little daring to the most exciting, throwing-caution-to-the-wind embrace of big, bold color in the kitchen:
Here is a collection of kitchens that stepped outside the boundaries of white. They are arranged according to my subjective assessments of bravery, from just a little daring to the most exciting, throwing-caution-to-the-wind embrace of big, bold color in the kitchen:
This is a color that's not unusual to see on toes at the beach in summer. I applaud someone making an unabashed commitment to it this way, and I'm guessing this person never has trouble finding conversation topics when entertaining.
Black. A designer and homeowner definitely have to have a certain amount of self-possession to choose black cabinetry. Designer Emily Hagerman says these homeowners are builders who were renovating this home to sell, so they wanted an attention-grabbing kitchen. The black stain is flat, she says, so you can admire the rich wood grain beneath. I award extra points here for the checkered backsplash, too.
Orange is trendy right now in fashion, but it's still a color people approach with caution when it comes to interior design. Here the light floors, walls, and ceiling encouraged a no-holds-barred approach.
Using two contrasting colors in the backsplash all the way through—and without the safety net of white cabinetry wins extra points for fearlessness.
The use of green backsplash tiles here is elegant (though this green itself is fairly neutral).
Dark cabinetry definitely takes a certain amount of confidence, and again the ceiling here is a beautiful and deliberate part of the design.
Zing. This vivid green backsplash makes me want to sink my teeth into a Granny Smith apple.
A similarly juicy green, with bonus points thrown in for the richly varied tones in the ceiling and floor. Though a wide-angle camera lens may have contributed to the sense of expansiveness here, the fact that the grains are perpendicular to each other creates all kinds of exciting movement. Very bold, indeed.
This kitchen made it in simply because yellow currently seems to be an exceedingly rare choice in kitchens. This is the kitchen I imagine in my French countryside retreat—definitely a good thing.
Copper isn't a "color," exactly, but moving outside the safe chrome/brushed nickel/stainless steel gleam of most contemporary kitchens won points. (The copper is just one of several enchanting design innovations here.)
Blue can be a risky design color because it can so easily veer into "cold" territory. The honey-toned wood—and interestingly, the black floor— help balance it out here.
Including this seems a bit of a cheat, since the baseline for the palette seems to be white. But cool gray cabinets and deep-water cobalt blue tiles stir it up.
Modern Kitchen Cabinetry
Again, you can't use black as a baseline color if you don't have a backbone. And here they've used it as a foil for a nice, saturated, appetizing shade of red.
Some bold choices that we've seen before, but here used together and with a sense of leaping right in. Inky black. Chartreuse all the way to the ceiling. A rich, red-infused wood floor.
The one that blew my hair back. So many things jump to mind here: French boudoir. A young girl's favorite dolls. Beet-juice stains. The Jetsons. Love. Designer Mal Corboy (also of the first kitchen) is renowned for his use of color, and a fearless client gave him free reign. Here he had large sheets of glass etched with a fleur-de-lis pattern, then painted that delicious shade.